Verizon Wireless launches AAA Mobile

US carrier Verizon Wireless and AAA, North America’s leading motoring and travel organization, today announced the availability of AAA Mobile, their off-board navigation solution.

On the top of the classic turn by turn navigation solution powered by Networks In Motion (NIM) - with Navteq map data -, AAA offers other services that differentiate the application from the competition. First, requesting roadside assistance is made very simple by pressing a single button on the phone. GPS coordinates are sent to AAA that enables a call with the nearest AAA roadside assistance dispatch center. Second, AAA Mobile subscribers can access AAA TourBook guide travel information on their mobile phones, allowing them to locate and obtain turn-by-turn driving directions to 200,000 AAA Approved points of interest (POIs), including 50,000 restaurants and 7,500 car repair facilities. Third, users have also in their hands 100,000 merchant's locations that offer AAA member savings.

Verizon Wireless customers can purchase AAA Mobile in the Travel & Guides shopping aisle of the “Tools On The Go” section in the “Get It Now” virtual store for $9.99 monthly access. Customers can currently also find AAA Mobile in the “Featured Application” shopping aisle on select Get It Now-enabled phones.

With AAA Mobile Verizon opens the door to an alternative to its VZ Navigator solution (also based on the NIM platform). Nevertheless Verizon will continue to promote its branded navigation solution, while “AAA will take the lead in promoting its solution” said Verizon's spokesman Jeffrey Nelson to GPS Business News.